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When effectively administered, feedback is a powerful way to
build knowledge and skills, increase motivation, and develop
reflective habits of mind in students and employees. Too often,
however, the feedback we give (and get) is ineffectual or even
counterproductive. Here, four ways to offer feedback that really
makes a difference, drawn from research in psychology and
cognitive science:

1. Supply information about what the
learner is doing, rather than simply praise or
criticism.
In "The Power of Feedback," an article published in
the Review of Educational Research in 2007,
authors John Hattie and Helen Timperley point out that specific
information about how the learner is performing a task is much
more helpful than mere praise or, especially, criticism. In
particular, research by Hattie, Timperley, and others has found
that feedback is most effective when it provides information on
what exactly the learner is doing right, and on
what he or she is doing differently (and more successfully) than
in previous attempts.

2. Take care in how you present feedback.
The eminent psychologist Edward Deci has identified several
conditions under which feedback may
actually reduce learners' motivation. When
learners sense that their performance is being too closely
monitored, for example, they may disengage from learning out of
feelings of nervousness or self-consciousness. To counter this
impression, the purpose of observing or supervising should be
fully explained and learners’ consent obtained. Better yet,
learners should be involved in collecting and analyzing data on
their own performance, reducing the need for
oversight by others. (And as the popularity of the "Quantified
Self" movement has demonstrated, many people seem to enjoy
keeping even minute records of their own behavior.)

A second risk identified by
Deci is that learners will interpret feedback as an attempt to
control them—for example, when feedback is phrased as, "This is
how you should do it." Empower learners rather than
controlling them by giving them access to information about their
own performance and teaching them how to use it.

According to Deci, a third feedback condition that can reduce
learners' engagement is an uncomfortable sense of competition. To
avoid this, emphasize that you are sharing feedback with students
or workers not to pit them against each other, but rather to
allow them to compete against their own personal bests.

3. Orient feedback around goals.
Information about performance means little if it's not understood
in relation to an ultimate goal. Hattie and Timperley have
formulated three questions that feedback can help answer:
"Where am I going?" (That is: What is my goal?)
"How am I going?" (That is: What progress is being
made toward my goal?) Lastly, "Where to next?"
(That is: What actions must be taken to make further progress?)
Feedback is most effective, research has found, when it directly
addresses the learner's advancement toward a goal, and not other,
less-pertinent aspects of performance. (If it's not relevant to
the goal, don't bring it up.)

Once a goal has been clearly specified, feedback can help
learners see the progress they're making toward that target. Find
ways to help learners represent this progress visually, in a
chart or graph that they update regularly.

4. Use feedback to build metacognitive
skills.
The most profound and lasting benefit of sharing feedback with
students or employees is the development of their awareness of
their own learning. Having access to information about their
performance creates opportunities for learners to recognize when
they've made mistakes and figure out what to do to fix them. It
also helps them to monitor their own motivation and engagement,
and take proactive steps when they feel these flagging. They can
learn to identify when to work harder, when to try a different
approach, and when to seek help from others. The ultimate goal of
feedback, in other words, should be to teach learners how to give
feedback to themselves. (An abstract of the Hattie and Timperley
article is on my blog.)